A Mind for the Holy One via . . . The Exchanged Life
The Exchanged Life
J. Hudson Taylor
Yes, in me, in
me He dwelleth
I in Him and He in me!
And my empty soul He filleth
Now and through eternity.
Horatio Bonar
“… God made me a new man! God has made me a new man!”
Wonderful was the experience that had come in answer to
prayer, yet so simple as almost to baffle description…
Do you know, I now think that this striving, longing,
hoping for better days to come is not the true way to holiness, happiness or
usefulness. It is better, no doubt, far better than being satisfied with poor
attainments, but not the best way after all. I have been struck with a passage
from a book… entitled Christ is All. It says,
“The Lord Jesus received is holiness begun; the Lord
Jesus cherished is holiness advancing; the Lord Jesus counted upon as never
absent would be holiness complete…
“He is most holy who has most of Christ within, and
joys most fully in the finished work…”
… To let my loving Savior work in me His will, my
sanctification, is what I would live for by His grace. Abiding, not striving
nor struggling; looking off unto Him; trusting Him for present power… resting
in the love of an almighty Savior, in the joy of a complete salvation, “from
all sin” — this is not new, and yet ’tis new to me… Christ literally all
seems to me, now, the power, the only power for service, the only ground for
unchanging joy…
How then to have our faith increased? Only by thinking
of all that Jesus is and all He is for us: His life, His death, His work, He
Himself as revealed to us in the Word, to be the subject of our constant
thoughts. Not a striving to have faith… but a looking off to the Faithful One
seems all we need; a resting in the Loved One entirely, for time and eternity.
… I looked to Jesus, and when I saw — oh, how joy
flowed!
It was resting in Jesus now, and letting Him do the
work — which makes all the difference. Whenever he spoke in meetings after
that, a new power seemed to flow from him, and in the practical things of life
a new peace possessed him. Troubles did not worry him as before. He cast
everything on God in a new way, and gave more time to prayer.
It was the exchanged life that had come to him —
the life that is indeed “No longer I”… It was a blessed reality “Christ liveth
in me.” And how great the difference! — instead of bondage, liberty; instead of
failure, quiet victories within; instead of fear and weakness, a restful sense
of sufficiency in Another.
Perhaps I may make myself more clear if I go back a
little… I prayed, agonized, fasted, strove, made resolutions, read the Word
more diligently, sought more time for meditation — but all without avail. Every
day, almost every hour, the consciousness sin oppressed me.
I knew that if only I could abide in Christ all would
be well, but I could not. I would begin the day with prayer, determined not to
take my eye off Him for a moment, but pressure of duties, sometimes very
trying, and constant interruptions apt to be so wearing, caused me to forget
Him. Then one’s nerves get so fretted in this climate that temptations to
irritability, had thoughts and sometimes unkind words are all the more
difficult to control. Each day brought its register of sin and failure, of lack
of power. To will was indeed “present with me,” but how to perform I found not.
Then came the questions, is there no rescue? Must it be
thus to the end — constant conflict, and too often defeat?… Instead of growing
stronger, I seemed to be getting weaker and to have less power against sin; and
no longer, for faith and even hope were getting low. I hated myself, I hated my
sin, yet gained no strength against it. I felt I was a child of God. His
Spirit in my heart would cry, in spite of all, “Abba, Father.” But to rise to
my privileges as a child, I was utterly powerless.
… I knew I was powerless. I told the Lord so, and asked
Him to give me help and strength. Sometimes I almost believed that He would
keep and uphold me; but on looking back in the evening — alas! There was but
sin and failure to confess and mourn before God.
… And yet, never did Christ seem more precious; a
Savior who could and would save such a sinner!… And sometimes there were
seasons not only of peace but of joy in the Lord; but they were transitory, and
at best there was a sad lack of power.
All the time I felt assured that there was in Christ
all I needed, but the practical question was — how to get it out. He was
rich truly, but I was poor; He was strong, but I weak. I knew full well that
there was in the root, the stem, abundant fatness, but how to get it into my
puny little branch was the question. As gradually light dawned, I saw that
faith was the only requisite — was the hand to lay hold on His fullness and
make it mine. But I had not this faith.
I strove for faith, but it would not come; I tried to
exercise it, but in vain. Seeing more and more the wondrous supply of grace
laid up in Jesus, the fullness of our precious Savior, my guilt and
helplessness seemed to increase. Sins committed appeared but as trifles
compared with the sin of unbelief which was their cause, which could not or
would not take God at His word… I prayed for faith, but it came not. What was I
to do?
When my agony of soul was at its height, a sentence in
a letter from dear McCarthy was used to remove the scales from my eyes, and the
Spirit of God revealed to me the truth of our oneness with Jesus as I
had never known it before.
“But how to get faith strengthened? Not by striving
after faith, but by resting on the Faithful One.”
As I read, I saw it all! “If we believe not, he abideth
faithful.” I looked to Jesus and saw (and when I saw, oh, how joy flowed)! That
He had said, “I will never leave thee.”
“Ah, there is rest!” I thought. “I have striven
in vain to rest in Him. I’ll strive no more. For has not He promised to
abide with me — never to leave me, never to fail me?” And… He never
will.
… As I thought of the Vine and the branches, what light
the blessed Spirit poured direct into my soul! How great seemed my mistake in wishing
to get the sap, the fullness out of Him! I saw not only that Jesus will
ever leave me, but that I am a member of His body, of His flesh and of His
bones. The vine is not the root merely, but all — root, stem, branches,
twigs, leaves, flowers, fruit. And Jesus is not that alone — He is soil and
sunshine, air and showers, and ten thousand times more than we have ever dreamed,
wished for or needed. Oh, the joy of seeing this truth! I do pray that the eyes
of your understanding too may be enlightened, that you may know and enjoy the
riches freely given us in Christ.
… It is a wonderful thing to be really one with a risen
and exalted Savior, to be a member of Christ! Think what it involves. Can
Christ be rich and I poor? Can your right hand be rich and your left poor? Or
your head be well fed while your body starves?… No more can your prayers or
mine be discredited if offered in the name of Jesus (i.e., not for the sake of
Jesus merely, but on the ground that we are His, His members) so long as we
keep within the limits of Christ’s credit — a tolerably wide limit!
The sweetest part… is the rest which full
identification with Christ brings. I am no longer anxious about anything, as I
realize this; for He, I know, is able to carry out His will, and His will is
mine. It makes no matter where He places me, or how. That is rather for Him to
consider than for me; for in the easiest position He must give me His grace,
and in the most difficult His grace is sufficient… So, if God should place me
in serious perplexity, must He not give me much guidance; in positions of great
difficulty, much grace; in circumstances of great pressure and trials, much
strength? No fear that His resources will prove unequal to the emergency! And
His resources are mine, for He is mine, and is with me and dwells in me.
And since Christ has thus dwelt in my heart by faith,
how happy I have been!… I am no better than before. In a sense, I do not
wish to be, nor am I striving to be. But I am dead and buried with Christ — ay,
and risen too! And now Christ lives in me, and “the life that I now live in the
flesh, I live by faith of the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for
me.”
… Do not let us consider Him as far off, when God has
made us one with Him, members of His very body. Nor should we look upon this
experience, these truths, as for the few. They are the birthright of every
child of God, and no one can dispense with them without dishonoring our Lord.
The only power for deliverance from sin or for true service is Christ.
And it is all so simple and practical!
“But are you always conscious of this abiding in
Christ?” Mr. Taylor was asked many years later.
“While sleeping last night,” he replied, “did I cease
to abide in your home because I was unconscious of the fact? We should never be
conscious of not abiding in Christ.”
I change, He
changes not;
The Christ can never die:
His truth, not mine, the resting place;
His love, not mine, the tie.
And here is a comment on the Exchanged Life principle by T. Austin Sparks:
You remember that that figure [the Vine and the branches] and that tree was the turning-point in the life of Hudson Taylor. Up to a time, he was in the awful strain of things - the work of the Lord, the demands laid upon him by this work, all that came upon him through the Mission and the meetings. He felt that it was an intolerable strain and he almost broke under it and had to get away with the Lord. And then the Lord spoke to him through John 15, and he saw it by revelation. I expect no man knew John 15 as to the letter better than he at that time, but then he saw it by revelation, and saw this: "Why, after all, the whole need can be spontaneously met by my abiding in Christ!" That is so simple that it seems foolish, but it changed his life and changed his history. You have read his life and know the chapter on it, 'The Exchanged Life'. He said, "Christ is my soil, Christ is my sap, Christ is the fruit, Christ is the branch; why, Christ is everything, and all I have to do is to live in Christ, abide in Christ, and the rest will happen!" - and it did happen.
Well, coming back to Ezekiel, it is this fruit, full fruit for food, and leaves for healing; it depends on the measure of His Life in us, or, in other words, the measure of our spirituality, the measure of our spiritual life. It is spontaneous according to measure. It is certain if we are as we should be; "it faileth not".
And here’s yet another view from my perspective:
This post is supposed to be a discussion on our having a “Mind for the Holy One”, yes, but when you consider as a Christian, you cannot do anything of yourself. You can’t make a resolution or simply “turn over a new leaf” in regards to all this. You must find the “Mind of Christ” in this matter. As a believer we do, in fact, possess the Mind of Christ – but how do we access this, turn it on, so to speak and walk in this “Mind”. Honestly, I don’t really know the way. I have been saved since 1974 and I battle carnality each day and my mind is “soulical” as Watchman Nee states. I know the famous verse in Galatians.
“I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who lives but Christ lives in me.” Galatians.2:20
I know that verse by heart, yet my mind knowing it does not equal the revelation of it, the “living it out” day-by-day. I am not there yet.
A famous book called The Normal Christian Life by Watchman Nee refers to the principle of being buried with Christ and resurrected with Him in newness of life. Our old man in a very real spiritual realm is DEAD and the life we live now is Christ’s resurrection life. Few, very few, have come to the freeing revelation of this – a spiritual truth becoming a personal and transforming truth. The passage in Galatians speaks of “the life I now live, I live by the faith of the son of God. It is many, many times incorrectly translated as “the faith in the Son of God.” It is not our faith in Him that is spoken of here. It actually refers to His faith, when He was living among us, His obedience, His life – that is what secured our salvation. His work, His faith is what we live in now. When we were spiritually resurrected, identified with His death, but then brought out of our death into His life – we were born again. It is not us version 2.0! We are in Him, identified with Him. The old man, the former us is now dead and buried. We are now in Him – yet still walking here on this earth in our old bodies, with our old soul and our old mind – both that need sanctification, renewing. But in reality it is nothing like a simple “do over” a “remodeling of our Adamic nature. God cannot accept nor approve anything from that source. It all has to be of Christ, the Second Adam.
Confused yet?
And another thing that hampers us is the teachings of most organized religions’ pastors and teachers. They say to us that since we are Christians we need to do this and that. We need to be this and that. We need to stop this and that. Read your bible, pray, go to church and Sunday school, volunteer and evangelize. Spread the Gospel near and far. That all sounds very, very good – but we CANNOT do this stuff. It is not in us, no matter how much we try. We may have good intentions and slave at it for years but the honest ones will admit they are very near to “burnout.” Why? We have been provided only part of the Gospel.
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